Explosions hit US and Israeli embassies in Uzbek capital

Suicide bombers hit the US and Israeli embassies in Tashkent today, killing at least two Uzbeks, news reports and police said.

A third blast hit the general prosecutor's office.

The Interfax news agency said a man with an explosive belt on his waist detonated a bomb outside the American Embassy and Uzbek security forces surrounded the compound, stopping all traffic.

Israel radio said the attack on the Israeli Embassy also was a suicide assault and that one of the dead there was an Uzbek security guard.

The radio said all the Israeli personnel were safe inside the building, while Uzbek security forces conducted searches in the area. The explosion occurred on the pavement at the embassy's entrance, it said.

A spokeswoman for the general prosecutor's office, Svetlana Artikova, said there also was a blast at that building, but she had no information on casualties. The Interfax news agency reported there were deaths in the explosion, citing an unnamed source at the office.

In Washington, a State Department official confirmed that the department had "received reports of a bombing outside the US Embassy in Tashkent." The official had no information on casualties and said it was not clear if the embassy was the target.

The blasts come as 15 suspects are standing trial for a wave of violence earlier this year that left at least 47 people dead. Those attacks had included Central Asia's first-ever suicide bombings.

The suspects have pleaded guilty to charges of terrorism, murder and religious extremism and could face the death penaty.

Several of the suspects on trial have said that the US and Israeli embassies had been intended targets in the wave of explosions that killed 33 alleged militants, 10 police and four bystanders in April and May, officials say.